WHS committee and WHS duty holders
Health and safety committees aim to ensure that workers’ views are heard on WHS matters. The purpose of a health and safety committee is to provide a forum for management and workers together to identify and resolve health and safety problems, and to develop and monitor safe systems and procedures.
Legislation in all the Australian jurisdictions ensures that WHS committees may be elected in each workplace where a committee is requested. The other common method of ensuring workers’ views are heard is through a health and safety representative.
Duties under the WHS Act are non-transferable. A person may have more than one duty and more than one person can have the same duty. However, each person must discharge the duty to the extent the person has the capacity to influence and control the matter (or would have that capacity but for an agreement or arrangement purporting to limit or remove that capacity).
Duties imposed on a person to ensure health or safety (‘health and safety duties’) require the person:
• to eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable, and
• if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, to minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
Legislation in all the Australian jurisdictions ensures that WHS committees may be elected in each workplace where a committee is requested. The other common method of ensuring workers’ views are heard is through a health and safety representative.
Duties under the WHS Act are non-transferable. A person may have more than one duty and more than one person can have the same duty. However, each person must discharge the duty to the extent the person has the capacity to influence and control the matter (or would have that capacity but for an agreement or arrangement purporting to limit or remove that capacity).
Duties imposed on a person to ensure health or safety (‘health and safety duties’) require the person:
• to eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable, and
• if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, to minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.